System, method and computer-readable medium for providing pattern matching

ABSTRACT

A system, method and computer-readable medium are disclosed for identifying representative data using sketches. The method embodiment comprises generating a plurality of vectors from a data set, modifying each of the vectors of the plurality of vectors and selecting one of the plurality of generated vectors according to a comparison of a summed distance between a modified vector associated with the selected generated vector and remaining modified vectors. Modifying the generated vectors may involve reduced each generated vector to a lower dimensional vector. The summed distance then represents a summed distance between the lower dimensional vector and remaining lower dimensional vectors.

REFERENCE TO RELATED DOCUMENTS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/083,812 filed on Feb. 27, 2002, which application claims benefit ofpriority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 60/313,473, filed Aug. 21, 2001, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to data management and, moreparticularly, to methods, systems, and machine-readable media foridentifying representative trends in large sets of data.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Time series databases, containing data captured over time, are commonlyused in such areas as finance, meteorology, telecommunications, andmanufacturing to keep track of data valuable to that particular area.For example, financial databases may track stock prices over time.Meteorological parameters such as the temperature over time are storedin scientific databases. Telecommunications and network databasesinclude data derived from the usage of various networking resources overtime such as the total number and duration of calls, number of bytes orelectronic mails sent out from one ISP to another, amount of web trafficat a site, etc.; manufacturing databases include time series data suchas the sale of a specific commodity over time.

Time series data depict trends in the captured data, which users maywish to analyze and understand. Users may wish to know, for a given timewindow, a trend of “typical” values or an “outlier” trend. Conversely,users may wish to find the time window in which most trends are assimilar as possible or clustered. These similar trends are called“representative trends.” Representative trends may be used in lieu ofthe entire database for quick approximate reasoning. In addition, theycan be used for prediction and for identifying and detecting anomalousbehavior or intrusion.

By their very nature, time series databases tend to contain largeamounts of data. As such, using representative trends of the datareduces the amount of data to be analyzed. However, the large amounts ofdata must first be processed in order to identify the representativetrends.

There is a need in the art to identify representative trends efficientlyand quickly in large amounts of data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method, system, and machine-readablemedium for identifying representative trends in large amounts of datausing sketches. A “sketch” is a lower dimensional vector used torepresent higher dimensional data. The present invention includesreducing subvectors of the data to sketches, summing the distancesbetween each sketch and every other sketch, and selecting the datasubvector corresponding to the sketch with the lowest summed distance asthe representative trend of the data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method according to thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for generating sketches;

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate the method of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for comparing sketches;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for identifyingrepresentative trends in data;

FIGS. 7( a)-(d) illustrate representative relaxed periods and averagetrends; and

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computer system that canimplement the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for identifyingrepresentative trends in data using sketches. A sketch is a lowerdimensional vector used to represent higher dimensional data. When thereare large amounts of data, the data may first be partitioned into datasubvectors of a given dimension. These data subvectors can then betransformed into sketches, which have lower dimensions. The lowerdimensions correspond to less data being processed. As such, usingsketches of the data, rather than the data itself, provides moreefficient, faster performance. So the user may be able to quicklyanalyze the data without utilizing large amounts of processor time andsystem memory.

In addition to dimensionality reduction, sketches exhibit distance andsynthesis properties that may be used in data analysis. The synthesisproperty provides a sketch synthesized from existing sketches. Thisproperty is particularly useful when existing sketches representsubvectors with a given dimension, but sketches are needed forsubvectors with a higher dimension. In such a case, the sketch may beeasily synthesized from the existing sketches, rather than calculatedfrom scratch. This synthesis property allows the user to generatesketches once and then use those sketches to represent multiplesubvector dimensions without having to reprocess the data in itsentirety, thereby saving processor time and system memory.

According to the distance property, the distance between two sketches iscomparable to the distance between the subvectors that the sketchesrepresent. Thus, by calculating the distance between two sketches, thedistance between the subvectors that the sketches represent may be foundwith measurable accuracy. In addition, by increasing the sketchdimension, the probability of identifying the data's representativetrend may be increased and the error between the data and the sketchesreduced. This property allows the user to calculate distances with lessdata—i.e. the sketches rather than the data itself—thereby savingprocessor time and system memory. The distance property holds forsynthesized sketches as well.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an embodiment of a method for identifyingrepresentative trends according to the present invention. First,sketches may be generated for data partitioned into subvectors (step100). The data may be partitioned in a number of ways to generate thedata subvectors of a given dimension T. Each adjacent subvector mayinclude anywhere from 0 to T−1 overlapping data elements. The finalsubvectors may have dimensions less than T and may generally be ignoredin data analysis. The amount of overlap may affect how well synthesizedsketches match their data subvectors and how quickly representativetrends are identified. The sketch dimensions may be lower than thesubvector dimensions. Each of the generated sketches may then becompared to every other generated sketch for a given subvector dimensionT to determine how closely the sketches match each other (step 105). Thesketch that has the most matches may be considered to be representativeof the data. The representative trend may then be identified as thesubvector corresponding to the most closely matching sketch and theperiod of the data may be identified as the subvector dimension T (step110). As a result, the representative trend of the data may be found byprocessing less data—i.e., the sketches rather than the entiredata—thereby saving processing time and system memory. Optionally, thismethod may be repeated for multiple subvector dimensions The result maythen be output to a graphical display, storage device, transmitter, orthe like.

Additionally, the present invention offers the following advantages: (a)the best trend may be identified, as opposed to a sinusoidalapproximation of it; (b) the trends may be identified using variousmetrics, as opposed to only a distance metric as is the case for Fouriertransforms; (c) for noisy data, filtering may be omitted, unlike theFourier transform; and (d) representative trends may be identified fromsubvectors, unlike Fourier transforms which treat the entire data.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an exemplary method for generating thesketches. First, the sketch dimension is chosen (step 200). By choosingthe sketch dimension, the user may determine how much error to allow inthe final result, i.e. between the identified and the actualrepresentative trend of the data. The higher the dimension, the smallerthe error. Next, the data subvectors may be generated by partitioningthe data (step 203). A random vector with the same dimension as the datasubvectors may then be generated to have a normalized, Gaussiandistribution (steps 205, 210). The elements of the random vector may besamples from a Gaussian distribution with zero mean and unit variance,normalized to have unit length. The sketch for each data subvector maybe calculated using the subvector and the random vector (step 215).

The sketch may be calculated using a dot product between the subvectorand the random vector. A dot product is a well-known mathematical toolfor transforming one vector into another. In the present invention, thesubvector may be projected onto the random vector to produce the sketchvector. The advantage is that such a projection reduces the dimension ofthe data to be analyzed, thereby saving processor time and systemmemory.

For example, suppose {right arrow over (t)}₁=(2, 1, 3, 1) and it isdesired to construct a sketch vector of dimension 2. Two vectors {rightarrow over (v)}₁=(−0.45, −0.09, 0.10, 0.87) and {right arrow over(v)}₂=(−0.19, 0.73, −0.61, 0.21) may be chosen as normalized Gaussiandistributed vectors. The dot product may be calculated between {rightarrow over (t)}₁ and {right arrow over (v)}₁ to produce the firstelement of the sketch and between {right arrow over (t)}₁ and {rightarrow over (v)}₂ to produce the second element of the sketch. Hence, thesketch of {right arrow over (t)}₁, S(t₁) is (0.18, −1.27).

Optionally, the sketch may be calculated using a polynomial convolutionbetween the subvector and the random vector. A polynomial convolution isa well-known mathematical tool. In the present invention, the subvectormay be convolved with the random vector to produce the sketch. Theadvantages of the convolution are that it reduces the dimension of thedata to be analyzed and all the elements of the sketch vector may becalculated together, thereby saving processor time and system memory.

FIG. 3 shows an example using polynomial convolution to computesketches. A vector {right arrow over (t)}=(2, 1, 3, 1) may bepartitioned into subvectors of dimension 2, t₁=(2, 1), t₂=(1, 3) andt₃=(3, 1). The subvectors may then be convolved with normalized vectors{right arrow over (v)}₁=(−0.97, −0.20) and {right arrow over(v)}₂=(0.11, 0.99). The first and second elements of each sketch ofdimension 2 may be computed at the same time, such that S1=(−2.14,1.21), S2=(−1.57, 3.08), and S3=(−3.1, 1.32).

Optionally, the sketch may be calculated by synthesizing it from a poolof sketches. Recall the synthesis property that allows a sketch to besynthesized from existing sketches. A pool of sketches is a small subsetof the set of all sketches that could be calculated for a given set ofsubvectors. To generate the sketch pool, first, two sets of normalizedrandom vectors may be generated (steps 205, 210 of FIG. 2). Then, twosets of sketches may be calculated by either a dot product or apolynomial convolution using the data subvectors and each set of therandom vectors. The synthesized sketch may then be calculated by addingcorresponding sketches from each set. Typically, one sketch may beselected from each set. The selected sketch represents all or portionsof the data to be represented by the synthesized sketch. If thedimension of the subvector of interest is a power of the subvectordimension represented in the sketch pool, then a sketch in the poolrepresenting the same subvectors or subvector portions may be used torepresent the subvector of interest. If, however, the dimension is not apower of the subvectors represented in the pool, the sketch may besynthesized as described above.

This pool of sketches may be calculated and stored prior to dataanalysis. As such, the pool of sketches may be used as a look-up tableduring analysis. Thus, the synthesized sketch may be calculated veryquickly from existing sketches. This synthesis allows sketches torepresent subvectors of various dimensions without recalculating randomvectors and repartitioning subvectors, thereby saving processor time andsystem memory.

FIG. 4 shows an example using a sketch pool to compute a sketch. In thisexample, the sketch representing a subvector of dimension 5 may becomputed from a pool of sketches representing subvectors of dimension 4.The subvector of dimension 5 is {right arrow over (t)}=[2 1 3 1 2]. Thefirst set of pool sketches includes S¹(t₁)=(0.09, −1.44) for t₁=[2 1 31] and S′(t₂)=(0.51, 1.08) for t₂=[1 3 1 2]. The second set of poolsketches includes S2(t₂)=(0.61, 2.04) for t₂ and S2(t₃)=(0.45, 0.27) fort₃=[3 1 2 3]. The sketch pool represents subvectors having dimensionsthat are a power of 2. According to the present invention, since thedimension 5 is not a power of 2, the sketch for t isS′(t)=S¹(t₁)+S²(t₂)=(0.70, 0.60). Note that the second, third, andfourth elements of t₁ and t₂ overlap. The more overlap between the addedsubvectors, the more accurate the synthesized sketch—i.e., the moreclosely the synthesized sketch matches an actual sketch calculated fromscratch. As few as one element may overlap and the accuracy may be highenough for data analysis purposes.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary method for comparing the sketches. First,sketches of subvectors of dimension T may be acquired (step 905). Then,the distance between the sketch of each subvector and the sketches ofeach of the other subvectors may be calculated (step 910). Exemplarydistance measurements include the L₂, L₁, and L_(∞) norms, which arewell-known in the art. For each sketch, the inter-sketch distance may becalculated as the sum of the calculated distances (step 915). As such, alowest of the summed distances may be found. This lowest distanceindicates how closely sketches match each other and data similarities,i.e., representative trends. According to the distance property, thisinter-sketch distance may be substituted for the distance between thedata subvectors to compare the subvectors and identify their trends.Advantageously, less data may be processed, thereby saving processortime and system memory.

Optionally, the sketch comparison may be repeated for multiple subvectordimensions T. In this case, the sketches may be recalculated orsynthesized for the different dimensions and the distances between themcalculated. So, the lowest summed distance would be the lowest distanceamong all the sketches at all the different subvector dimensions. Theadvantage of employing this option is that the absolute lowest distancemay be selected, indicating the best match and representative trend.This option may be used if the lowest distance exceeds a predeterminedthreshold, indicating that no good representative trend has beenidentified at the current subvector dimensions. In this instance, thedata may be partitioned into subvectors of a higher dimension, T+1 forexample, and the sketches generated using the pool of sketches or,optionally, from scratch.

Optionally, for each subvector dimensions T, the distance between thesketch of the first subvector and the sketches of each of the othersubvectors may be calculated (step 910). For the first sketch at each T,the inter-sketch distance may be calculated as the sum of the calculateddistances (step 915). This inter-sketch distance indicates how closelythe first sketch matches other sketches. The lowest of the summeddistances among the different dimensions may be found. This lowestdistance indicates which data subvector dimension T best matches theperiod of the data.

After the inter-sketch distances are calculated, the representativetrend may be identified and output as shown in FIG. 6. The lowestinter-sketch distance may be selected (step 1000). From FIG. 5, theselected distance may be the lowest distance between the first and theother subvectors among the various subvector dimensions T or the lowestdistance between any one and all other subvectors among the varioussubvector dimensions T. The subvector dimension T that corresponds tothe lowest distance may be identified as the period of the data (step1005). As such, the subvector corresponding to the lowest distance maybe identified as the representative trend of the data (step 1010). Therepresentative trend of data may be output to a graphical display,storage device, transmitter, or the like.

The present invention may be applied to data to find relaxed periods andaverage trends. It is to be understood that the relaxed period andaverage trend applications are for exemplary purposes only, as thepresent invention may be used to find a variety of data patterns ortrends.

A relaxed period of data t is defined as the period T of data t′generated by repeating a subvector of dimension T that most closelymatches t—that is, the period T of the data t′ that has the lowestdistance from t. The relaxed period's representative trend is thesubvector of dimension T. For example, the relaxed period'srepresentative trend of 213123213132213 is 2132 and the relaxed periodis 4. FIG. 7( a) shows an exemplary data vector of dimension 15. Itscorresponding trend is shown in FIG. 7( b). It includes 4 repetitions ofthe first four values of the vector in FIG. 7( a). The vector in FIG. 7(b) “resembles” the original vector to a great extent. Hence the firstfour values of the vector in FIG. 7( b) may be thought of as beingrepresentative of the entire vector of FIG. 7( a).

An average trend is the subvector of data whose total distance to allthe other subvectors is the smallest. The corresponding period is thesubvector dimension T. For example, if t=113123213132113 as in FIG. 7(c) and T=3, then some subvectors of interest may be 113, 123, 213, 132,and 113, or a consecutive group of three elements. The average trend is123 which has a lowest total distance of the other subvectors. Theaverage trend is shown in FIG. 7( d). FIG. 7( d) presents a vectorderived by 5 repetitions of 123 in FIG. 7( c). The vector in FIG. 7( d)is quite similar to that in FIG. 7( c), and hence may be thought of asrepresentative. The representative trend may be output to a graphicaldisplay, storage device, transmitter, or the like.

If the distance between the sketches is zero, then the dimension of thesubvectors that the sketches represent is the exact period of the data.Other variants of representative trends may be of interest as well.

Applying the method of the present invention to identify a relaxedperiod proceeds as follows: Data may be partitioned into subvectors ofdimension T. A sketch dimension may be chosen. Then, the subvectors maybe reduced to the sketches using an exemplary method, such as a dotproduct, polynomial convolution, or a sketch pool. If the sketch pool isused, the sketch pool would have been generated and stored prior to thisprocess. After the sketches are generated, the distances between thefirst sketch and the other sketches may be calculated and summed. Thismay be repeated for several different subvector dimensions. Then, thelowest distance among the different dimensions may be selected. Therelaxed period may be identified as the subvector dimension Tcorresponding to the lowest distance.

Similarly, to identify an average trend, data may be partitioned intosubvectors of dimension T. A sketch dimension may be chosen. Then, thesubvectors may be reduced to the sketches using an exemplary method,such as a dot product, polynomial convolution, or a sketch pool. If thesketch pool is used, the sketch pool would have been generated andstored prior to this process. After the sketches are generated, each oftheir distances to the other sketches may be calculated and summed foreach sketch. The lowest distance may be selected. If the lowest distanceexceeds a predetermined threshold, the process may be repeated for adifferent subvector dimension. Or the process may be repeated just tofind the absolute lowest distance among several different subvectordimensions. After the lowest distance is selected, the average trend maybe identified as the subvector corresponding to the lowest distance.

The methods of FIGS. 2, 5, and 6 may be used in combination oralternatively according to the present invention.

The present invention may be implemented for any application in whichlarge amounts of data are used. Exemplary applications include stockmarket tracking and weather tracking. In such applications, a data setmay be generated by sampling the measured data. For example, the priceof a particular stock may be sampled every day or atmospheric pressureand temperature measurements may be sampled every hour. Conversely, thedata set may be acquired from a source already in sampled form.Representative trends of the data set may then be identified. Theidentified trends may be output to an appropriate device for graphicaldisplay, storage, transmission, or further analysis. Exemplary analysisincludes comparing the trends to prior trends to establish patterns ofbehavior or anomalies.

Some aspects of the present invention may be implemented using thefollowing equations:

To synthesize a sketch, suppose there are two sketches S¹ and S²representing two data subvectors of dimension X, where X<T. The userwishes to produce a third sketch S′ that represents a data subvector ofdimension T. For a particular sketch—say, S′(t[i, . . . , i+T−1])—ofsubvector t[i, . . . , i+T−1]), the j-th element of the sketch, where1≦j≦T, may be synthesized as follows:S′(t[i, . . . , i+T−1])[j]=S(t[i, . . . , i+X−1])[j]+S ²(t[i+T−X, . . ., i+T−1])[j]).  (1)

The dimension k of a sketch may be chosen such that

$\begin{matrix}{{k = \frac{9\log\; L}{ɛ^{2}}},} & (2)\end{matrix}$where L is the number of subvectors of dimension T and E is auser-defined error. By choosing k, the user also sets E, therebydetermining how much error to allow in the final result.

According to the distance property, for any given set L of subvectors ofdimension T. for fixed ε<½ and k, then for any pair of subvectors {rightarrow over (t)}_(i),{right arrow over (t)}_(j)εL(1−ε)∥{right arrow over (t)} _(i) −{right arrow over (t)} _(j)∥²≦∥{right arrow over (S)}(t _(j))∥²≦(1−ε)∥{right arrow over (t)} _(i)−{right arrow over (t)} _(j)∥²  (3)Here ∥{right arrow over (t)}_(i)−{right arrow over (t)}_(j)∥² is the L₂distance between the two subvectors.

The distance property holds for synthesized sketches as well. In thiscase,(1−ε)∥{right arrow over (t)} _(i) −{right arrow over (t)} _(j)∥²≦∥{right arrow over (S)}′(t _(i))−{right arrow over (S)}′(t_(j))∥²≦2(1−ε)∥{right arrow over (t)} _(i) −{right arrow over (t)}_(j)∥².  (4)

So, to compare sketches, the distance between sketches of the subvectors{right arrow over (S)}(t_(i)), {right arrow over (S)}(t_(j)) may becalculated as D({right arrow over (S)}(t_(i)),{right arrow over(S)}(t_(j))), e.g., using the L₂ distance. The inter-sketch distance maybe calculated as the sum of the distances,C ^(i)(S(t(T)))=Σ_(j) D({right arrow over (S)}(t _(i)),{right arrow over(S)}(t _(j))).  (5)

The mechanisms and methods of the present invention may be implementedusing a general-purpose microprocessor programmed according to theteachings of the present invention. The present invention thus alsoincludes a machine-readable medium which includes instructions which maybe executed by a processor to perform a method according to the presentinvention. This medium may include, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disk, optical disk, CD-ROMs, or any type of mediasuitable for storing electronic instructions.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer system thatcan implement the present invention. The system 2300 may include, but isnot limited to, a bus 2310 in communication with a processor 2320, asystem memory module 2330, and a storage device 2340 according toembodiments of the present invention.

It is to be understood that the structure of the software used toimplement the invention may take any desired form, such as a single ormultiple programs.

Numerous modifications and variations of the present invention arepossible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to beunderstood that within the scope of the appended claims, the inventionmay be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein.

1. A computer-implemented pattern-matching method comprising: generatinga plurality of vectors from a data set; modifying each of the vectors ofthe plurality of vectors; and selecting one of the plurality ofgenerated vectors according to a comparison of a summed distance betweena modified vector associated with the selected generated vector andremaining modified vectors.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein modifyingeach of the vectors further comprises reducing each generated vector toa lower dimensional vector.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising, for each lower dimensional vector, summing distances betweenthe lower dimensional vector and remaining lower dimensional vectors. 4.The method of claim 3, wherein selecting the one of the plurality ofgenerated vectors further comprises selecting the generated vectorcorresponding to the lower dimensional vector having a lowest summeddistance.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the selected one of theplurality of generated vectors is representative of the data set.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: outputting the selected generatedvector as the representative of the data set.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein outputting the selected generated vector further comprisesoutputing the generated vector to at least one of a graphical display,storage device and transmitter.
 8. A computer-readable medium storinginstructions for controlling a computing device to performpattern-matching, the instructions comprising: generating a plurality ofvectors from a data set; modifying each of the vectors of the pluralityof vectors; and selecting one of the plurality of generated vectorsaccording to a comparison of a summed distance between a modified vectorassociated with the selected generated vector and remaining modifiedvectors.
 9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein modifyingeach of the vectors further comprises reducing each generated vector toa lower dimensional vector.
 10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9,further comprising, for each lower dimensional vector, summing distancesbetween the lower dimensional vector and remaining lower dimensionalvectors.
 11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein selectingthe one of the plurality of generated vectors further comprisesselecting the generated vector corresponding to the lower dimensionalvector having a lowest summed distance.
 12. The computer-readable mediumof claim 11, wherein the selected one of the plurality of generatedvectors is representative of the data set.
 13. The computer-readablemedium of claim 8, further comprising: outputting the selected generatedvector as the representative of the data set.
 14. A system forpattern-matching, the system comprising: a module configured to generatea plurality of vectors from a data set; a module configured to modifyeach of the vectors of the plurality of vectors; and a module configuredto select one of the plurality of generated vectors according to acomparison of a summed distance between a modified vector associatedwith the selected generated vector and remaining modified vectors. 15.The system of claim 14, wherein the module configured to modify each ofthe vectors further reduces each generated vector to a lower dimensionalvector.
 16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a moduleconfigured to sum distances between the lower dimensional vector andremaining lower dimensional vectors for each lower dimensional vector.17. The system of claim 16, wherein the module configured to select theone of the plurality of generated vectors further selects the generatedvector corresponding to the lower dimensional vector having a lowestsummed distance.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the selected one ofthe plurality of generated vectors is representative of the data set.19. The system of claim 14, further comprising: a module configured tooutput the selected generated vector as the representative of the dataset.
 20. The system of claim 19, wherein the module configured to outputthe selected generated vector further outputs the generated vector to atleast one of a graphical display, storage device and transmitter.